Tag Archives: Colin Bell

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 30 April

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   A new internationally recognised independent beer tasting competition for our country has been announced, organised by the same team that runs The South African Wine Tasting Championships.  The South African National Beer Trophy will be awarded to winners in various categories, brands to be entered by breweries, micro-breweries, and home brewers. No ciders or meads can be entered.  Entered beers will be blind tasted by a panel in July. Entries open on 1 June. (received via media release from the SA National Beer Trophy)

*   In a joint bid by various bodies in Cape Town and Uganda, the World Conference on Tobacco or Health will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in March 2018, with an expected attendance of 3000 Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 5 June

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines 

*   The Cape Town International Convention Centre has appointed Julie-May Ellingson as its new CEO.  Ms Ellingson has been CEO of the Durban Convention Centre for the past three years.

*   With the assistance of Wesgro and the Department of Trade & Industry, local wine exporters Robinson & Sinclair have secured a national listing with Walmart Sams Club Brazil.  The company represents 18 family-owned wine estates.

*   TripAdvisor ‘reviewers’ have voted Cape Town second best in the world in the categories ‘Best for Restaurants‘ (after New York) and ‘Helpful Locals‘ (after Tokyo), in its World City Survey 2014.  Helena Egan, Head of TripAdvisor Destination Marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said about our country and its people: ‘Everyone is friendly and it’s a genuine friendliness. It comes from the heart. It’s natural. The joy and happiness of the people are key to your destination success’. Velma Corcoran, Executive for Marketing at Cape Town Tourism, added: ‘Any accolade awarded by destination users is a fantastic barometer for us. The fact that we have been voted second to New York as one of the world’s top restaurant cities is truly a testament to Cape Town’s talented and visionary chefs and restaurateurs. It is a moment to celebrate, and luckily Capetonians and visitors can do this at great value this winter as excellent specials abound. On behalf of the destination I would also like to thank each and every person who smiled at, assisted or shared their stories with our visitors. We are so proud to be Capetonian‘.

*   The image of Pinotage is improving, as its association with ‘burnt rubber’ and bitterness is being addressed by the Continue reading →

Breaching Great White Sharks most likely to be seen in False Bay!

OO Cape Town Great White shark cage Whale Cottage PortfolioLast night I attended an interesting talk on ‘The Great White Shark: a Global Perspective’, given by shark expert and Apex eco-tour operator Chris Fallows at the One&Only Cape Town. Chris’ talk covered the three key seal areas attracting Great White Sharks in South Africa, as well as other well-known shark areas in the world.

I was invited by Ian Manley, the hotel’s PR consultant, to Chris’ talk, one of two (the second will focus on the relationship between Orca killer whales and Great White Sharks tonight), in a series of Guest Speaker Talks, which include Joanne Lifson on 18 June on ‘Lights Canine Action’, Colin Bell speaking on rhino extinction on 3 July, ‘Africa’s Three Big Cats‘ by Lorne Sulcas on 15 July, and more. One&Only Cape Town ambassador Aubrey Ngcungama introduced Chris, who has documented his shark adventures in his book ‘Great White: The Majesty of Sharks‘, and who has filmed documentaries about the Great White Shark with Discovery Channel, the BBC’s Planet Earth, and National Geographic.   In the hotel reception area, a shark cageChris Fallows Great White The Majesty of Sharks with diver, as well as a model of a small shark, were set up to attract attention to the talks programme.

Prior to the start of the talk Chris and I chatted, and he explained that Orcas, known as ‘killer whales‘, are not whales at all, but are members of the dolphin family.   Orcas are known to kill whales, by pushing them under water and making them drown.   In South Africa Great White Sharks can be found where there are concentrations of seals, in three regions: Continue reading →

Tourism sees strong UK dip in January 2013, after strong international growth in 2012!

SA Statistics has released the January 2013 tourism arrival statistics, and it is clear that our tourism industry is in trouble, the traditional source markets of the UK and Europe strongly down relative to the same month a year before, and American arrivals showing a minimal increase, as reported by Southern African Tourism Update.  Two of the BRICS countries, India and Brazil, continue to show strong growth.  In total tourism numbers declined by 4% to 202548 in January 2013, relative to a year ago.

The 19% decline in UK tourists is no surprise, as we have picked up the dramatic demise of UK tourists in the past two summers, due to that country’s economic recession, but still is ranked top as source country at 34393. America is the second largest source market, with 21330 arrivals. German tourists numbered 21101, a surprising decline of 6%.  France is in 6th place as a source country, with a slight decline in its arrivals. The Netherlands, another important source market. showed a decline of 18%, and is now in 8th place.

The decline in the UK arrivals is confirmed in an article in Breaking Travel News, which showed that UK travelers would be affected by the exchange rate in most countries, given the weak pound sterling, affecting their travel costs to the USA, Australia, and Europe.  Countries in which British travelers will not suffer the exchange rate so badly are Argentina, Brazil, and South Africa.  However, the higher cost of flights to these countries may cancel out the benefit of the lower exchange rates.

China surprisingly showed its first decline, by 4 %, and is ranked 4th on the tourism arrivals list, while arrivals from Brazil jumped by close to 13%.  Given tour operator Colin Bell’s discovery that the tourism arrival statistics include transit passengers, spending at least 24 hours in our country to be defined as such, it is interesting to note that about 40% of the Chinese and Brazil ‘tourist’ arrivals were in fact transit passengers travelling to another country from South Africa.  This does not apply to Indian tourists, the 15% increase in arrivals from this country reflecting the great work which is being done by SA Tourism in that country.  Its head, Hanneli Slabber, has just been recognised as Safari India National Tourism ‘Best Professional in Marketing’.

These depressing tourism arrival statistics were announced after Marthinus van Schalkwyk, national Minister of Tourism, shared at Indaba earlier this month that South Africa’s digital marketing activities have reached 1 billion people, reports themovechannel.com.  ‘Our video, banner and text adverts were displayed to the targeted audiences over 1,1 billion times’, in addition to marketing programs with CNN, National Geographic, Expedia, Facebook, TripAdvisor, and WAYN.com.  The Minister may not understand that duplication of exposure of South Africa’s advertising message would reduce the audience size.  The value of South Africa’s editorial coverage in international media is estimated at R4,6 billion.

Minister van Schalkwyk has reacted to the news that a development bank is being set up by the BRICS countries, and has said that it ‘will boost tourism among the nations’.  The increased business trips related  to setting up the development bank will be ‘prompting other tourists to follow suit’, the Tourism Minister said, according to The Telegraph. A Goldman Sachs report shows that the BRICS countries generated half the global economic growth in the last ten years.  Currently inter BRICS trade is valued at $230 billion, and is estimated to double in the next two years.

Minister van Schalkwyk was invited to lead a new United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) commission on tourism and development, at a meeting yesterday of its Executive Council in Belgrade, working with a working group of France, Germany, Kenya, Jamaica, Egypt, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Mauritania, and Belgium, reports the Southern African Tourism Update.

We appeal again to Cape Town Tourism and Wesgro to market Cape Town and the Western Cape nationally and internationally, to counter the frighteningly low bookings for June and July, one of the worst winter seasons we have seen.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage